Bringing port operations into line

Dionisia Tabureguci
Training of management level personnel is top on the agenda for the South Pacific Community’s (SPC) Regional Maritime Programme (SPCRMP), the new secretariat of the Association of Pacific Ports (APP).

It takes over from the Ports Authority of Fiji (now Fiji Ports Corporation Ltd).

SPCRMP’s maritime ports security officer Timoci Tamani said the move should go a long way in helping the organisation realise its goals.

“In the past years, the APP secretariat had been taken up by Fiji on a volunteer basis so all the expenses and everything related to the secretariat was borne by Fiji all along. And because there was no fulltime person responsible for that role, most of the activities that APP did or would have liked to put in place were not done. In essence, everything just went to sleep as those tasked with doing the secretariat’s job had their own responsibilities with FPCL,” said Tamani.

It was only logical, he added, that the role be transferred to SPCRMP, a programme that comes under SPC’s Marine Resources Division. More important are two key components of this programme which include the provision of legal advice on maritime policy and legislation, as well as the provision of training to maritime administrations, training institutions and seafarers throughout the region. This is to bring their operations into line with international codes and conventions.

Now with the two organisations in direct alignment with each other, what has been envisaged is “the strengthening of APP as a formidable lobby group in the Pacific with SPCRMP harnessing the power base of its members to take up regional issues collectively with the objective of bringing about awareness and pro-active changes to the port industry.”

A more immediate issue that APP is faced with, according Tamani, is the lack of formal training for port workers and this is what the new secretariat will set out to do first.

“We have a F$500,000 grant from China for port development for the next five years and we will be using it for training. We are already lining up target recipients for that. We think we will spend all that amount within two or three years because of the need that is there.”

Also under discussion is a proposed degree level course at the University of the South Pacific to teach the subject of maritime transport management, in a bid to inject a more serious tone into the port business.

“The course will be for the shipping industry—for the ports, shipping and movement of cargo. There is not a place in Fiji where one can go to and do those courses, so we are talking with USP which already has campuses around the region.

“Last year, we held discussions with people in the port industry and as a result, we saw there was a need for such a course. Many people working in the port industry are experienced workers but very few have proper qualifications because the courses are only available overseas,” said Tamani. 

“We are proposing to USP that the course comes under its School of Marine Studies and we hope it will start next year.”

Herbert Hazelman, executive president of APP, said: “We are all islands countries and we depend to a large degree on seaports for our external and internal trade.  But the emphasis seems to be on tourism and air traffic.

“We feel that Pacific islands ministers and governments should give seaports and the maritime industry more recognition. Give it the recognition that it deserves because we are islands nations and what we all do is rely on the sea for the transfer of 95 percent of our trade and the majority of our population between the islands.”

Hazelman said most of the issues common to all ports in the region are pollution, the presence of derelicts and the lack of a formal training programme for land-based port management.

“With SPC’s involvement, we hope to be able to push our agenda to be recognised alongside air transport, tourism and the rest of it,” he added.